It feels so great to be back home. For some reason this year I was starting to get home sick. I mean I could have handled staying in Prague because I have family there and I could stay occupied by traveling, but in the end I'm so happy I bought my ticket and came home. I totally surprised everyone :D I only told my dad Ludek (who was kind enough to pick me up) and my sister Janet. And of course David knew too.
So the reason I decided to come back was because I didn't want to have to go through being by myself again for 3 whole months. It's nice to be able to hang out with David and close friends and family. I know the trade off is that I'll miss Prague night life and my Prague friends, but I think I will hopefully be able to study in peace here and start working out too. I think I'm going to go swimming with Tiffany and also use the gym. I also decided that in order to pay for the ticket to come back to the states I needed to move from our apartment where we paid 5,000 crowns a month and move in with Pepik. This way we don't have to pay any rent while I'm gone and when we come back.
My flight this time was a very good one because it was as direct as it could get. I went from Prague to Amsterdam to Portland. Total fly time was only 11 hours and altogether it was about 14 hours.
There were a few times I was a little worried about missing a plane but everything went smoothly. One annoying thing was that everything was taking forever at every check point. Normally I go through check-in fast and even connecting flights are fast, but this time I had to wait in lines and cut it close to fly times... Thankfully there were no weather delays. I also brought the dogs with me because I've decided that they are going to stay with my mom while I'm in Prague. I feel bad because I know I'm going to miss them SO much. :'(
After my dad picked me up I had him drop me off at my mom's because I still had to surprise her. She wasn't home though, she was actually shopping in Portland. I had to wait until about 10pm when they came home. I was getting so tired waiting (I didn't get too much sleep on the flights) so I made myself busy with cookie baking. Finally when they arrived I ran to the door to unlock it and saw my mom peeking through the window. Her face was so shocked, it was funny. I was actually able to record some of her reaction since I grabbed the camera. I also surprised grandma, Tiffany and Jessica pretty good.
Christmas dinner at my mom's was pretty good. We has a sweet tasting ham with rosemary potatoes. I also made some grog (which turned out a bit too strong). Surprisingly I recieved a bunch of presents even though I just showed up last minute! I don't know how they pulled it off but it was awesome. I recieved a Kohls card, money, clinque stuff, bath & body works stuff, and some other little goodies. :)
On the 25th we went to visit grandma. She still had no idea that I was coming, so to make things more fun I hide in the car are sneaked my way to the door and busted in. She was just as shocked as my mom was.
Below is a picture of Tiffany and David a few days after New Years. We were coming home from Daniel's parents house.
It's been nice to be back in the States where I have my own car, am able to enjoy my hobbies and have normal American grocery stores. :) However I'm heading back to the homeland for another 4 months this Sunday the 27th. I'm pretty estatic that I have a good flight back, total duration of only 13 hours (YES!). No 20 hours like I'm used to... I only hope that I can sleep. I'll be arriving in Prague 2:40pm. I saved some crowns for the trip back to the apartment, so I don't need to have Pepa come get me... but I do need some kind of way to get inside since I didn't take the keys with me.
Flight: 
